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Saturday, 31 October 2015

This Striped Poncho from Dynamite I purchased last week. It's sooo warm and cozy. I love that I can either wear it open or belt it as another look. I absolutely love the pattern and it's also 100% acrylic, so it's very soft. It has a fringed hem, so I decided to pair it with my fringed booties that I bought from Sirens during the Dixie Outlet Mall Challenge. I think this poncho will also look great with my black and brown tall boots on those cold fall days as well.

Monday, 26 October 2015

I get so excited when it's fashion week in Toronto. I love getting a sneak peak of the new collections and seeing what's on trend for the upcoming season.

Last Wednesday I went to the Pink Tartan show, and loved so many pieces from the Spring Collection. I was mostly drawn to the neutral pieces, but still found a few colourful looks I liked. I also loved how there were some fringed pieces that were included in the spring line, since it's been such a big hit this fall.

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

If you read my blog regularly, you will probably remember my post on the reveal of my son's big boy room last September. He is so into water, sharks, and boats so I ended up decorating it in a nautical theme which he loves so much.

For some extra storage in his room I wanted to bring a toy box into the space. Not for toys necessary, but more to store extra books or blankets or stuffed animals. I searched and searched online and found nothing that I really liked or that was in my price range, until I came across Whimsical Imaginings on Facebook.

Serina from Whimsical Imaginings does custom oil paintings for babies and children's rooms. She is so amazing and very talented. Now I know what you're probably thinking...custom = expensive right? Well, that sometimes is true, but not at Whimsical Imaginings. She is very affordable.

She didn't supply the toy box, but she will refinish it for you and do the custom artwork on it. I bought mine on Kijiji. The toy box is solid pine which cost me $30, and she charged $50 for the artwork. Reasonable right? I think so.

What I loved about choosing Whimsical Imaginings is all the steps that she takes to keep the "client" in the loop. She takes her time and sends updates on her progress. It wasn't just one email from me saying what I wanted, and she says "ok," and then you hope for the best. With her procedure, you stay in the loop. This way, it turns out like how you envisioned it because you were part of the process.

Once I dropped the toy box off to her, she told me to email her what I wanted in the painting, and any inspiration pictures that I had. So, I did just that. I told her I wanted a nautical painting that included a boat, sharks, and a fisherman. All things my son loves. I also sent her a couple of pictures too. Then, a few days later she starts a sketch, and she sent it to me to approve.

Once the sketch is approved, you then have the choice to have her refinish the box or paint it. I had some extra stain from my son's bedroom furniture, so I got her to stain it the same colour so it all matched. I also gave her some extra paint that we used on the walls in his room to incorporate into the painting. Once it was stained, she sent me a picture to approve and then she started on the painting.

I loved checking my email and receiving progress photos. It was great seeing the stages of the painting coming together. It's amazing to see all the details and layering of colours that goes into the design.

Once the artwork was complete I had the option of personalizing it. Since I am keeping this toy box for him as a keepsake, I decided to put his name on the boat. I hope one day he has a little boy so he can pass down this toy box to him. It would be so special and hold so many amazing memories.

Here is the toy box in his room. I think it looks great and fits perfectly.

Whimsical Imaginings doesn't only do custom paintings on toy boxes, she also does custom wall art, and name signs too. Check her out her Facebook Page HERE or her website HERE.

Serina has amazing talent and was a pleasure to work with. I can't wait to use her again to paint a toy box for my daughters room too.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

On the weekends, we are always looking for something that is FUN for the kids to do. Something "kid approved" A few of our friends were telling us about KidSpark located in the Ontario Science Centre, so we decided to go check it out.

KidSpark is a place for kids 8 and under where they can learn-through-play with their caregivers. They call it the Children's Museum at the Ontario Science Centre. This place was amazing! It was HUGE. So much for the kids to see and do.

My son had so much fun at the Pin Walls. They have 2 walls -a small and a large wall. You push the pins in to create impressions using your body. He would push his hand, face and body into the pins and laughed at the way it looked.

He loved was the Waterplay Area. He got to catch fish, play with waterwheels, boats, and make bubbles!! They also had cute little plastic aprons for the kids to put on, so they wouldn't get wet. Of course he had to be one of those kids that refused to put on one. I think it was because he was so excited, lol!

I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Toddler Playspace. They had 2 sections of KidSpark, and both had a Toddler Playspace inside. Since my kids are 3 years apart in age, they definitely like to do different things. My daughter isn't even walking yet, so this play area was golden! She spent most of the time there with either myself or my husband. Every now and then we would switch and hang out with our son at the other stations. He even liked the toddler area too, and sometimes he would join us.

Everywhere we turned there was something different to see and do. My son never wanted to leave!

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He had a lot of fun playing the matching and memory game. For the matching game, you had to match each reptile with the right head, body and feet by spinning the cylinder around. For the memory game, you had to have all the cube "faces" out. Then, turn one cube to see a shape or colour, then turn around another cube to see if you can find a match. If they didn't match, he had to turn the "faces" out again. If they did match, he would then have to turn both cubes until he got a piece of the mystery picture. ﻿

Another fun section was learning about the body. They had a large Doctors table where you could pretend to play Doctor and check out your patients x-rays. They also had a scale, eye chart, and a camera eye that magnified 240 times. My son had so much fun putting his sweater and hand under the camera eye.

In the other portion of KidSpark they had a section where you could build your own Roller Coaster. This was pretty neat. You could change the length of the track, and shape of the loops to create your own Roller Coaster. After that, you could test it out by grabbing a ball and putting it down one and watching it go.

I loved how they had scientists walking around KidSpark, helping kids at different stations and seeing if anyone had any questions.

My son loves anything construction, so when he saw you can "Build-A-House" he couldn't have ran over there fast enough. He worked together with other kids by adding foam bricks to the house.

They have a cute miniature Market as well. Kids can shop for everything from fruit, juice, fish and eggs, and take turns being the cashier.

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The music studio was another big hit. My son loved dancing to his favourite songs against a colourful screen.

If you have kids under the age of 8, I definitely recommend checking it out. It has plenty of activities to keep your children occupied for a while. We were there over 3 years and could of stayed longer if we didn't have to put our daughter down for a nap.

The Ontario Science Centre is located at 770 Don Mills Road in Toronto. For more information on KidSpark, hours and admission, visit their website HERE

Disclaimer: I was provided complementary tickets for this review but all opinions are my own.